Crew seating arrangement

Flight

The launch was first scheduled for December 18, 1989, but was later
postponed to complete and verify modifications to Pad 39-A. The second
scheduled launch on January 08, 1990 was aborted due to weather conditions.

The primary objectives of the mission were the deployment of the Syncom
IV-F5 Navy synchronous communications satellite (also known as Leasat 5), and
to retrieve
NASA's
Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) launched aboard Challenger on mission
STS-41C in April 1984, whose retrieval
had been delayed for 4 1/2 years by scheduling changes and the
Challenger
disaster of 1986. Columbia also carried several secondary payloads
involving material crystal growth, microgravity protein crystal growth,
lightning research, in- flight cardiovascular changes and effects of
microgravity and light on the cellular processes that determine circadian
rhythms and metabolic rates.

The deploying of defense communications
satellite Syncom-IV-F5 occurred on flight day two. Syncom IV-F5,
also known as LEASAT 5, was the fourth operational satellite in the LEASAT
system. It was leased by the Department of Defense to replace the older
FleetSatCom spacecraft for worldwide UHF communications between ships, planes
and fixed facilities. A Hughes HS381 design, the LEASAT spacecraft was designed
expressly for launch from the Space Shuttle and uses the unique "Frisbee", or
rollout, method of deployment.The first two spacecraft were deployed during
the 1984 STS-41D and
STS-51A Shuttle missions. LEASAT 3 was
deployed successfully in 1985 during mission
STS-51D but failed to activate. The
satellite drifted in low-Earth orbit until a salvage and rescue mission was
performed by the crew of mission STS-51I in September 1985. Following a series of
modifications by the Shuttle crew, LEASAT 3 was successfully deployed into its
operational orbit. Also as part of mission STS-51I, LEASAT 4 was successfully deployed from the orbiter.
However, it did not go into operational service due to a spacecraft failure
shortly after arrival at geosynchronous orbit.Interface between the
spacecraft and the payload bay was accomplished with a cradle structure. The
cradle held the spacecraft with its forward end toward the nose of the orbiter.
Mounting the antennas on deployable structures allowed them to be stowed for
launch.Five trunnions (four longeron and one keel) attached the cradle to
the orbiter. Five similarly located internal attach points attached the
spacecraft to the cradle. Another unique feature of the Syncom IV series of
satellites was the lack of requirement for a separately purchased upper stage,
as had all other communications satellites launched to date from the
Shuttle.The Syncom IV satellites contained their own unique upper stage to
transfer them from the Shuttle deploy orbit of about 160 n.m. to a circular
orbit 19,300 n.m. over the equator.Each satellite was 20 feet long with UHF
and omnidirectional antennas deployed. Total payload weight in the orbiter was
17,000 pounds. The satellite's weight on station, at the beginning of its life,
was nearly 3,060 pounds. Hughes' Space and Communications Group build the
satellites.Ejection of the spacecraft from the Shuttle was initiated when
locking pins at the four contact points were retracted. An explosive device
then released a spring that ejects the spacecraft in a "Frisbee" motion. This
gave the satellite its separation velocity and gyroscopic stability. The
satellite separated from the Shuttle at a velocity of about 1.5 feet per second
and a spin rate of about 2 rpm.

LDEF was delivered to Earth orbit by
STS-41C on April 06, 1984. The orbiter
Columbia rendezvoused and retrieved
LDEF using a -R BAR approach and the remote
manipulator system (RMS) for berthing of the spacecraft in the payload bay
on flight day four.As the orbiter neared
LDEF, the -R BAR approach was initiated. The orbiter
first passed below the spacecraft and circled up and over it. The - R BAR
approach was a new technique that does not require close-in fly-around. This
maneuver faced the payload bay toward Earth and
LDEF was now between, as well as perpendicular, to
both the Earth and the orbiter.At this point, Columbia was approximately
400 feet from
LDEF with the
RMS arm extended and the wrist camera pointing toward
the orbiter's starboard side. The wrist camera provided the primary field of
view for grapple. A yaw maneuver then was performed to place the wrist camera
in the same x,y plane as grapple fixture 2 (GF2) aboard
LDEF, so that the camera could eventually view GF2
head on.LDEF was then directly "above" the crew compartment
(the arm was still in its same position; unattached to the
LDEF). This allowed Commander Daniel
Brandenstein and Pilot James
Wetherbee to make necessary flight instrument changes to "fly
in formation" with the same speed and direction as the free- flying
LDEF.Next, the orbiter moved forward (+ZLV) very
slowly. The crew was watching their onboard monitor for the
LDEF to appear in the wrist camera's field of view. As
soon as GF2 was spotted, orbiter movement was ceased. The wrist camera then
rotated 180 degrees to be properly positioned for the grapple of
GF2.Mission specialist Bonnie
Dunbar then directed the
RMS toward GF2 and made the connection for grapple
completion.
LDEF was approximately 35 feet above the bay during
this procedure.The onboard computer then commanded the arm to align
LDEF with the berthing guides on the payload bay
sides. The final
RMS maneuvering now was commanded manually to set
LDEF in the bay. The crew also utilized the black and
white camera positioned at keel station 3 aiming it at a docking target. The
crew was watching the on- board monitor with an overlay for precision berthing.
Three orange Styrofoam balls called "berthing whiskers" were extended
horizontally inward from the forward payload bay side walls. The berthing
whiskers acted as "curb feelers" to detect forward movement of
LDEF.The arm now detached from GF2 and moved to
GF1, looking for the six Experiment Initiator System (EIS) indicators. If the
EIS's were black, the experiments power supply was already off. If they were
white, the arm moved into GF1 and turned off the experiments. Finally, the arm
was stowed.LDEF was a 12-sided, open grid structure made of
aluminum rings and longerons (fore-and-aft framing members). The structure was
30 feet long, 14 feet in diameter and weighed 8,000 pounds.LDEF's center ring frame and end frames were of welded
and bolted construction. The longerons were bolted to both frames, and
intercostals (crosspieces between longerons) were bolted to the longerons to
form intermediate rings. The main load of
LDEF was transmitted to the orbiter through two
side-support trunnions on the center ring.LDEF hold 86 experiment trays, 72 around the
circumference, six on the Earth-pointing end and eight on the space-pointing
end. A typical tray measured 50 inches by 34 inches and investigators could
choose one of three depths: 3, 6 or 12 inches. The trays were made of aluminum
and hold experiments that weighed up to 200 pounds. Some experiments filled
more than one tray; some filled only part of a tray. All trays and their
experiments weighed only 13,400 pounds. Total weight of the structure, trays
and experiments was 21,393 pounds.The timeliness of the retrieval was of
critical importance, because a high rate of solar flux had increased the
density of the
LDEF's orbital environment and accelerated its rate of
orbital decay. Specialists who carefully monitored the stability of the craft's
orbit had anticipated that if the
LDEF was not retrieved in time, it would pass too low
for the shuttle to safely reach, and could be destroyed during re-entry in
February 1990. Thus, the mission's exact liftoff time was determined about 12
hours before launch, using the latest tracking data on
LDEF. It was flown on a 352 kilometers (190 nmi) orbit
inclined 28.5 degrees to the equator. The retrieval had been delayed for 4
½ years by scheduling changes and the
Challenger
disaster. The retrieval of
LDEF was recorded with an
IMAX camera, and appeared in the
IMAX movie "Destiny in Space" in 1994. Earth
observation footage from the camera also appeared in the 1991 movie "Blue
Planet".

The American Flight Echocardiograph was an off-the-shelf
medical ultrasonic imaging system modified for Space Shuttle compatibility. The
AFE noninvasively generated a two-dimensional, cross-sectional image of the
heart or other soft tissues and displayed it on a cathode-ray tube (CRT) at 30
frames per second. AFE has flown before on STS-51D and was designed to provide in-flight measurements of
the size and functioning of the heart and record heart volume and
cardiovascular responses to space flight. Results from the AFE were used in the
development of optimal countermeasures to crew cardiovascular changes.
Operated by
STS-32 Mission Specialist Marsha
Ivins, the AFE hardware was stored in an orbiter middeck
locker. All five crew members participated in the experiment as subjects as
time allows. Crew members also used the AFE to support Detailed Secondary
Objective 478, the first flight of a collapsible Lower Body Negative Pressure
unit.

Characterization of Neurospora Circadian Rhythms (CNCR) in
Space was a middeck payload sponsored by the Office of Space Science and
Applications, Life Sciences Division. The objective of the CNCR experiment was
to determine if neurospora (pink bread mold) circadian rhythm (diurnal cycles)
persists in the microgravity environment of space.This experiment was
intended to provide information about endogenously driven biological clocks,
which might then be applied to other organisms. Endogenous indicates the
activity occurs within a single cell's outer membrane.Neurospora grows in
two forms, a smooth confluence of silky threads (mycelia) and cottony tufts of
upright stalks tipped with tiny ball-shaped spores (conidia). When growing in a
constant, completely uniform external environment, the neurospora mold cycles
rhythmically from one growth form to the other. This cycle causes the mold to
produce the ball-shaped spores on approximately 21-hour intervals. This
interval is believed to be controlled by an internal cell clock.

The
Protein Crystal Growth (PCG) payload aboard
STS-32 was a continuing series of experiments that may
prove a major benefit to medical technology. These experiments could improve
food production and lead to innovative new drugs to combat cancer, AIDS, high
blood pressure, organ transplant rejection, rheumatoid arthritis and many other
diseases.Protein crystals, like inorganic crystals such as snowflakes, are
structured in a regular pattern. With a good crystal, roughly the size of a
grain of table salt, scientists are able to study the protein's molecular
architecture.Determining a protein crystal's molecular shape is an
essential step in several phases of medical research. Once the
three-dimensional structure of a protein is known, it may be possible to design
drugs that will either block or enhance the protein's normal function within
the body. Though crystallographic techniques can be used to determine a
protein's structure, this powerful technique has been limited by problems
encountered in obtaining high-quality crystals well-ordered and large enough to
yield precise structural information.Protein crystals grown on Earth are
often small and flawed. The problem associated with growing these crystals is
analogous to filling a sports stadium with fans who all have reserved seats.
Once the gate opens, people flock to their seats and in the confusion, often
sit in someone else's place. On Earth, gravity-driven convection keeps the
molecules crowded around the "seats" as they attempt to order themselves.
Unfortunately, protein molecules are not as particular as many of the smaller
molecules and are often content to take the wrong places in the
structure.During the
STS-32 mission, 120 different
PCG
experiments were conducted simultaneously using as many as 24 different
proteins. Though there are three processes used to grow crystals on Earth,
vapor diffusion, liquid diffusion and dialysis, only vapor diffusion will be
used in this set of experiments.Shortly after achieving orbit, either
Mission Specialist Marsha
Ivins or Mission Specialist David
Low
combined each of the protein solutions with other solutions containing a
precipitation agent to form small droplets on the ends of double-barreled
syringes positioned in small chambers. Water vapor diffused from each droplet
to a solution absorbed in a porous reservoir that lines each chamber. The loss
of water by this vapor diffusion process produced conditions in the droplets
that cause protein crystals to grow.In three of the 20-chambered,
15-by-10-by-1.5-inch trays, crystals were grown at room temperature (22 degrees
Centigrade); the other three trays were refrigerated (4 degrees C) during
crystal growth.
STS-32 was the first mission, during which
PCG
experiments ran at 4 degrees C, making it possible to crystallize a wider
selection of proteins.The STS-26 and
STS-29 experiments were the first
scientific attempts to grow useful crystals by vapor diffusion in microgravity.
The main differences between the STS-26
and STS-29 payloads and those on
previous flights were the introduction of temperature control and the
automation of some of the processes to improve accuracy and reduce the crew
time required.

The Fluids Experiment Apparatus (FEA) was designed
to perform materials processing research in the microgravity environment of
spaceflight. Its design and operational characteristics are based on actual
industrial requirements and have been coordinated with industrial scientists,
NASA materials processing specialists and Space
Shuttle operations personnel. The FEA offered experimenters convenient,
low-cost access to space for basic and applied research in a variety of product
and process technologies.The FEA was a modular microgravity chemistry and
physics laboratory for use on the Shuttle and supported materials processing
research in crystal growth, general liquid chemistry, fluid physics and
thermodynamics. It had the functional capability to heat, cool, mix, stir or
centrifuge gaseous, liquid or solid experiment samples. Samples could be
processed in a variety of containers or in a semicontainerless floating zone
mode. Multiple samples could be installed, removed or exchanged through a
14.1-by-10-inch door in the FEA's cover.The interior of the FEA was
approximately 18.6-by-14.5-by-7.4 inches and can accommodate about 40 pounds of
experiment-unique hardware and subsystems. The FEA mounted in place of a
standard stowage locker in the middeck of the Shuttle crew compartment, where
FEA was operated by the flight crew. Modular design permitted the FEA to be
easily configured for almost any experiment. Configurations could change in
orbit, permitting experiments of different types to be performed on a single
Shuttle mission. Optional subsystems included custom furnace and oven designs,
special sample containers, low-temperature air heaters, specimen centrifuge,
special instrumentation and other systems specified by the user. Up to 100
watts of 120-volt, 400-Hertz power was available from the Shuttle orbiter for
FEA experiments. The FEA was successfully flown on two previous missions, as a
student experiment on STS-41D and as
the first flight of the FEA on STS-30.

Space Shuttle mission
STS-32 again carried the Mesoscale Lightning
Experiment (MLE), designed to obtain nighttime images of lightning to
better understand the global distribution of lightning, the relationships
between lightning events in nearby storms and relationships between lightning,
convective storms and precipitation.The Space Shuttle payload bay camera was
pointed directly below the orbiter to observe nighttime lightning in large, or
mesoscale, storm systems to gather global estimates of lightning as observed
from Shuttle altitudes. Scientists on the ground analyzed the imagery for the
frequency of lightning flashes in active storm clouds within the camera's field
of view, the length of lightning discharges and cloud brightness when
illuminated by the lightning discharge within the cloud.

The IMAX project is a collaboration between
NASA and the Smithsonian Institution's National Air
and Space Museum to document significant space activities using the
IMAX film medium. This system, developed by the
IMAX Systems Corp., Toronto, Canada, uses specially
designed 70 mm film cameras and projectors to record and display very high
definition large-screen color motion pictures.IMAX cameras previously have flown on Space Shuttle
missions STS-41C,
STS-41D and
STS-41G to document crew operations in
the payload bay and the orbiter's middeck and flight deck along with
spectacular views of Earth. Film from those missions form the basis for the
IMAX production, The Dream is Alive.So far in
1989, the
IMAX camera has flown twice, during Shuttle missions
STS-29 in March and
STS-34 in October. During those
missions, the camera was used to gather material for an upcoming
IMAX production entitled The Blue Planet.During
STS-32,
IMAX filmed the retrieval of the Long Duration
Exposure Facility and collected additional material for upcoming
IMAX productions.

The Air Force Maui Optical
Site (AMOS) tests allowed ground- based electro-optical
sensors located on Mt. Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii, to collect imagery and
signature data of the orbiter during cooperative overflights. The scientific
observations made of the orbiter, while performing reaction control system
thruster firings, water dumps or payload bay light activation, and were used to
support the calibration of the
AMOS sensors and the validation of spacecraft
contamination models. The
AMOS tests had no payload unique flight hardware and
only required that the orbiter be in predefined attitude operations and
lighting conditions.

On Shuttle mission
STS-41G, Payload Specialist and
oceanographer Paul
Scully-Power observed numerous unusual oceanographic features
from orbit but was unable to determine their exact locations for subsequent
study.
NASA, in conjunction with the Department of Defense,
began work on an instrument that would be able to determine the precise
latitude and longitude of objects observed from space.The
Latitude-Longitude Locator (L3) was developed and flown on a previous Space
Shuttle mission. This flight continued tests to determine the accuracy and
usability of the system in finding the latitude and longitude of known ground
sites.L3 consisted of a modified Hasselblad camera equipped with a
wide-angle 40 mm lens, a camera computer Interface. Crew members took two
photographs of the same target at an interval of approximately 15 seconds.
Information was fed to the GRID computer, which computed two possible
locations. The crew, by knowing whether the target is north or south of the
flight path, was able to determine which of the two locations was correct and
the target's latitude and longitude.